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7 March: what is celebrated today
7 March offers a threefold look at what sustains societies: the food that gives us energy, the public service that is sometimes paid for with life, and information which, when it circulates freely, can improve collective decisions. Today the calendar speaks of nutrition, memory and transparency, three words that do not usually appear in the same sentence but need one another more than they seem to.
World Cereals Day
World Cereals Day brings to the fore those unassuming grains that have accompanied humanity since we learned to sow. Wheat, rice, maize, oats and rye are not merely ingredients: they are food history, everyday economics and, in many places, a form of security. The word “cereal” leads us to Ceres, the ancient Roman goddess of agriculture, as if language remembered that eating has always also been a cultural act.
Cereals provide energy and nutrients, and their use runs through daily life: from bread to pasta, animal feed to industrial development. But the observance also invites a nuanced view: the value of whole grains, the importance of balance and the need to understand that not all bodies react alike, especially when gluten is involved. At heart, celebrating cereals means recognising that food is a domestic science: simple in appearance, complex in its effects.
International Day in Remembrance of Fallen Police Officers
The International Day in Remembrance of Fallen Police Officers, established in 2019 at Interpol’s initiative, creates a space of memory for those who lost their lives in the line of duty. In a world accustomed to statistics and fleeting headlines, the date restores name and human weight to a harsh reality: the permanent risk accompanying certain professions.
It is not merely an institutional tribute, but a social reminder: behind every uniform are families, interrupted stories and communities carrying on with an absence. Commemorating this day means recognising the cost of public safety and, at the same time, considering what sort of coexistence we want to build so that duty does not so often entail the final sacrifice.
Open Data Day
The first Saturday in March is Open Data Day, a day promoted since 2010 to encourage free access to information that can be reused, shared and transformed into knowledge. At a time when reality seems to fragment into opinions, open data proposes something else: evidence, analysis, comparisons and tools to understand the world better.
When governments, organisations and citizens work with accessible data, new possibilities emerge: measuring social progress, monitoring inequalities, designing more effective policies, creating useful applications or making invisible problems visible. This observance does not idealise information — it knows data are interpreted too — but it defends an essential idea: transparency is not a technical luxury, but a modern right.